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  Journal » Trout 14 » To A Friend Who Is A Beginning Sculptress [Elizabeth Smither]
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To a friend who is a beginning sculptress

Elizabeth Smither


You have made lilies for candlestick holders
a boy eternally hugging his knees
and now you are sculpting a donkey,

That stubborn beautiful creature that
alive will not move to a slap
unless he desires to do so.

In wax he is stubborn also
but you have carefully observed his hooves
his long ears, you have read Chesterton

and sought for truth in the wax
as you curl your fingers like a conductor
over his spine, straight and established

and over the four-square way he stands
searching for the essence of donkeyness
and bringing it back like fire to bestow

a gift from the air of desire, yours and
the donkey you do not know but make
so you can greet him, secure and fired.

 


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